20150214_BB
Source: BBC News
URL: N/A
Date: 14/02/2015
Event: UK main party leaders promise "to work together to fight climate change"
Credit: BBC News
People:
- Roger Harrabin: BBC's Environment Analyst
- Naga Munchetty: BBC journalist and presenter
- Charlie Stayt: BBC journalist and presenter
Charlie Stayt: The leaders of Britain's three main parties have promised to work together to fight climate change, whatever the results of the election.
Naga Munchetty: In a joint statement, David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg said that climate change is one of the most serious threats facing the world today. Our Environment Analyst Roger Harrabin reports.
Roger Harrabin: David Cameron originally promised the "greenest government ever" and travelled to the end of the world to prove his concern for the climate. But the conservative media have become increasingly sceptical about the threat from climate change. When Mr. Cameron announced cash to help poor people in countries like Bangladesh raise their homes out of the floodwaters, some Conservative backbenchers said the money should have been spent at home.
The Prime Minister has been increasingly making climate sceptic noises, but now he seems to have swung back. Coal-fired power generation will be banned, under the agreement the three party leaders have struck, unless new clean technology is introduced. The UK's world-leading Climate Change Act will not be scrapped, whoever wins the next election. Policies to reduce emissions from homes, cars and factories will continue. The three leaders say it'll be good for the UK economy, to save energy. Environmentalists say the deal is a landmark. Roger Harrabin, BBC News.